I Heart Lorrie Moore

The thing I love about a collection of short stories is how you can start it one year and finish it four later, which is what I've done with Lorrie Moore's Birds of America. Lorrie Moore has such a quirky sense of humor. In the first paragraph of "Beautiful Grade" Bill (our protagonist)'s good friend Arthur has just gotten divorced for the third time, and is hosting a New Year's Eve party to watch the footage from all three weddings and divorce proceedings. Moore writes, "Albert's elderly mother had videotaped the ceremony, and at the crucial moment in the vows, each time, Albert's face turns impishly from his bride, looks straight into the camera, and says, "I do. I swear I do." Later Albert vows "Now more divorces. No more wasting time. From here on in, I'm just going to go out there and a find a woman I really don't like very much, and give her a house."

In "Beautiful Grade" Bill, a solidly middle aged man has just begun to publicly date Debbie who is 24 and no longer a law student of his, though he is pinning after Lina another guest at the party. The story is a darkly humorous, and full of witticisms.

I also love a number of other stories in the collection, so I'd recommend perusing the whole thing. I'd recommend this to people who like high-brow, intellectual/academic humor (that pokes fun of itself,) people who like to laugh while contemplating real struggles, people who like exclamation points, and people who think it's fun to see a two whole pages of Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha! etc. etc. etc.